Starfield’s divisiveness explained by Todd Howard: it’s too ‘different’

Bethesda Softworks director and executive producer Todd Howard has theorised 'Starfield' is controversial because it is too "different" from what has come before from the studio.

The 2023 action role-playing-game was met by considerable pushback by fans after many complained it suffered from clunky writing and unengaging gameplay, but Todd has argued the real reason the title proved to be as divisive as it was is because it stands apart from Bethesda's previous releases, like 'The Elder Scrolls' and 'Fallout'.

During an appearance on 'The Kinda Funny Podcast', he said: "We see a lot of players saying, 'This is what I want out of a Bethesda game, which is to explore a world in a certain way, and 'Starfield' didn't give me that. I prefer the way it's done in 'Fallout' or 'Elder Scrolls'.

"I do think for us - particularly me - going into a science-fiction game, I want to be able to land on all the planets. I want the game to say, 'Yes' to us, knowing that that content is gonna be different than you've seen from us in the past."

Todd then rejected the idea of implementing more features akin to 'The Elder Scrolls' and 'Fallout' into 'Starfield', because there have to be "trade-offs" with science-fiction games.

He said: "That's some of the trade-offs we'll make to do what we think makes a science-fiction game like this… to make it what it should be."